A warning against possible high fines. This Friday, October 24, the European Union accused Meta and Tiktok of committing violations of digital content regulation.
Firstly, the European Commission criticizes the two social media giants for not granting researchers adequate access to their internal data, despite the European digital content legislation (DSA) requiring them to do so in the interests of transparency.
According to the Commission, the procedures for accessing this data are too long and daunting, which complicates the task of independent researchers who want to work on issues of public interest, such as the protection of minors online, misinformation or the harm of networks to mental health.
Dissuasive complaint procedure
At the same time, Brussels accused Meta of not having put in place mechanisms for reporting and processing illegal content on Facebook and Instagram that were easily accessible and simple to use, as provided for by the DSA.
Under this landmark law, platforms must allow any person or entity to request the removal of content they consider illegal (such as hate speech, posts that promote terrorism, or images of child pornography). However, the reporting procedure on Facebook and Instagram would be dissuasive, with multiple steps to follow and misleading interfaces (“dark patterns” in English) that confuse users.
This crime affects a fundamental aspect of the DSA, content moderation. Platforms are usually not responsible for the content distributed by their users, except from the moment it has been reported. From there, the platforms have the obligation to act. Hence the importance for citizens to be able to do so.
Contested crime
Finally, the Commission believes that users who want to challenge the removal of their content by Facebook and Instagram cannot present documents supporting their requests, which hinders their right to appeal. While some accuse the DSA of being an instrument of censorship, “we show that it is quite the opposite: it protects freedom of expression and the right of EU citizens to fight against content moderation decisions taken by technology giants,” said Thomas Régnier, spokesperson for the European Commission.
Since the text came into force, “we have made changes to our content reporting options, our appeals process and our data access tools within the European Union, and we are confident that these solutions comply with EU legal requirements,” he added.
“We are currently reviewing the conclusions of the European Commission,” but the demands for researchers’ access to data “put the DSA and the GDPR,” the data protection regulation, in direct conflict, said the Tiktok spokesperson.
The two groups risk fines of up to 6% of their annual global turnover. But the EU is not yet at the sanctions stage. They will have to respond to the Commission and propose measures to remedy the problems it has raised and, if the solutions are considered satisfactory, they could avoid sanctions.
Source: BFM TV
